Though the move was welcomed by the industry, experts warned the outlook remained tough in the face of low oil and gas prices, The Independent reported. There are still job security fears in the industry, the Guardian and local media cover.

2) Budget: other energy-related newsOsbourne announced £60m funding for an energy research project based in the Midlands, the BBC and others report.

The Energy Research Accelerator – meant to speed up the commercialisation of energy research – is a collaboration between the Universities of Birmingham, Nottingham, Warwick, Loughborough, Leicester and Aston.

3) ‘Decoupling’ of CO2 emissions and economic growth in China – and globally

Quartz describes how China grew its economy last year without any extra coal. “Some have seen this as evidence that China’s investment in green energy has made tangible progress toward decoupling the link between economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions,” it writes.

China burning less coal will have contributed significantly to the lower global carbon emissions reported in 2014 by, it continues.

The New Scientist’s Fred Pearce echoes this, writing an analysis titled ‘Coal bust may be behind stall in carbon emissions’ – linking the slowdown in coal plants being built worldwide to the shock carbon intensity reduction reported by the IEA last week.

The UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction has borne fruit, as the forum adopted seven goals to mitigate disaster risks over a 15 year period. It was the first time a framework has been set about mitigating the risks of disasters amid the increasing threat posed by climate change, Japan Times reported.

The talks between 186 countries didn’t collapse under the weight of climate politics, as was feared – RTCC reported.

After spending more than five years and billions of dollars trying to re-create the US shale boom overseas, some of the world’s biggest oil companies – Chevon, Exxon and Shell – are starting to give up, the WSJ reports.